


Threading the Eye

by shopfront



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Alien Culture, Bajoran Wormhole, Civilian Starships, Families of Choice, Gamma Quadrant, Gen, Karemma, Post-Canon, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-08
Updated: 2017-04-08
Packaged: 2018-10-13 18:13:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10519128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shopfront/pseuds/shopfront
Summary: Getting accidentally caught behind enemy lines has left the Alpha Quadrant science vessel Lorentzia battered and its crew devoid of any hope of the Bajoran wormhole re-appearing, until they are rescued by an unusual Karemma trading vessel. A story of two found families from two quadrants finding a way to fit together.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sixbeforelunch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sixbeforelunch/gifts).



> Rating/warning for very minor injury/violence due to ship damage from an attack at the beginning of the story. There are also offscreen implied character deaths of unknown characters who are important to those on screen.
> 
> Thank you to L and T for the last minute betas. Any remaining mistakes and poor decisions are entirely my own!

The bleep of a proximity alarm cut through the haze in Darius’ mind. Once he’d shaken himself back to alertness, he found himself surprised he’d even registered it over the cacophony of other alarms already sounding. Not to mention the throbbing in his head. He gritted his teeth against the grinding of his ribs with each inhale and the blurriness of his vision, and continued to grope blindly across the console. It seemed a futile endeavour with flames all but literally licking at their limbs and smoke filling the cabin, but still he tried, pressing everything that appeared under his hand and felt even vaguely like the right shape. 

By the time he ran out of controls to try the proximity alarm was still going, but the general audible chaos seemed a little lessened.

Hopefully _any_ alarms stopping was a good thing and not just his hearing going, too, he thought dimly as blackness finally began to creep in-

 

 

-the next thing he knew, there was a small light being shone in his eyes.

“Ow,” he groaned, raising a hand to bat weakly at the brightness.

“If you would, please, hold still.”

Vaguely he registered that the voice sounded irritated, not that he understood why when _he_ was the one being blinded. Again. But cold hands came from nowhere to hold back his own. Another grabbed hold of his jaw and kept him still while it felt like the light was attempting to sear its way directly into his brain.

“Sleep,” came the next command, somewhat less irritable now, and then the light blessedly disappeared. “We have rescued as many of your crew as we could, and your injuries can all be tended here. You are safe now.” 

_Which of our crew?_ he wanted to ask, _who are you? Where are we?_

But the pain in his side was fading and the words wouldn’t co-operate. As the hands disappeared he caught a glimpse of grey walls draped in colourful fabrics behind gracefully moving, blurry figures and then unconsciousness claimed him once more.

*

The murmur of familiar voices woke him slowly.

He vaguely remembered that something had gone very wrong, but the details were eluding him for the moment so he just let himself drift. A few voices were raised but no-one sounded unduly alarmed and he was warm and comfortable. That struck him as an unusual pleasure, for some reason. Whatever he was lying on felt functional but padded plenty well enough, and there just didn’t seem much point in rushing things.

Eventually he opened his eyes and found himself staring at a grey metal ceiling decorated with unfamiliar raised patterns. A ship then. He was most likely still on a ship.

Gradually an itch on his shoulder began to make itself known, so idly he reached up and-

A sharp pain lanced through his side, making his breath catch and bringing his memory flooding back. But his muffled groan was lost among the other voices suddenly rising in pitch.

“Whoever they might be they are still loyal to the Dominion! We must consider the possibility that they have no honour and will likely trade us to the Vorta, or to the Jem’Hadar who attacked us, if we stay here too long-“

It was a female voice and one that was rather familiar at loud volumes, he realised wryly, as other voices rose also in an apparent attempt to try and calm her. With little success.

“-but perhaps our ship was not entirely destroyed like they said. We have all dealt with the Ferengi and know that they would not help us, but perhaps these traders are different. Perhaps we can bargain with them. If we can convince them to return us before they encounter another Dominion ship….”

“It probably _is_ gone. I find it hard to believe any trader would leave behind a damaged science vessel, Ferengi or not,” another woman’s voice, less shaky than the first but no more upbeat, interrupted. “It would have been too tempting to salvage it for rare equipment and materials. They probably stole us away under the pretence of rescue and traded the remnants while we slept.”

“Don’t give L’Kara more things to fret over, Alaine,” Darius croaked.

Everyone went quiet for a moment and then the noise level rocketed back up again even higher, making him wince. Hands appeared once more, mostly human-warm and familiar hands this time, and helped him to lever himself up and braced him when he coughed.

“Ugh,” he said once he was seated upright with his back against a wall, causing a ripple of reluctant chuckles across the room while he caught his breath. “Alright, someone start from the beginning. Where’s Lucy?”

Silence fell again, forcing him to open his eyes and survey the small ring of faces watching him. Taking them in, Darius was dismayed to see that most of their people were gone - almost all their engineers, and every one of their other ship-crew were missing. Only one other engineer, Alaine, was left, along with three other humans and a Trill from their science crew, and L'Kara - their lone Klingon scientist.

“Where’s Lucy?”

“As far as we know,” Bennett finally offered when nobody meet his gaze, “the Captain… seems to have gone down with the ship.”

He teared up a little as he forced the last few words out, and Darius reached out - with his uninjured right arm this time - and grasped him by the shoulder. He was young, barely graduated from his first degree at the University of Alpha Centauri when they set out for the Gamma Quadrant. Too young to have been trapped for over a year beyond a wormhole by an unexpected war.

“I guess that means…”

“You’re in charge now,” Alaine said. The scientists all nodded.

“I heard L'Kara say that our ship had been destroyed, is it true?”

L’Kara did not answer but even her ridges seemed to blanch with fear once more at the thought. When she did not speak, Bennett squared his shoulders and nodded. “I was also awake when they came to tell us.”

“They? The Karemma, traders, right,” Darius muttered, mostly to himself, but Bennett nodded again. “Did they seem like they were lying?”

“I…,” Bennett started, but trailed off, averting his eyes away from L'Kara entirely and shrugging one shoulder. “I don’t know. They didn’t seem like they were to me, but what do I know?”

“Yes, go back to your stars and your planets, you don’t know-“

“L'Kara!”

Darius regretted the exclamation immediately and grabbed at his side, fighting back the pain as best he could. Everyone was watching him so closely, and Lucy… well. Bennett, at least, seemed buoyed by Darius coming to his defence.

“No, they didn’t seem like they were lying,” he said, chin raised high this time.

Darius nodded, slowly letting a breath hiss through his teeth until he could talk again without crying out. His ribs were throbbing in time with his pulse, and he was starting to feel a little light headed, but they were looking to him to lead now. To someone, anyway….

“If we don’t have a ship anymore, then I’m not necessarily in charge. Vesria, you’re the lead scientist now, you have just as much right-“

“No, Darius,” Vesria graced him with her usual gentle smile. “If I had the aptitude for it, I probably would have become an Initiate instead of leaving home alone for a privately chartered science vessel. You are in charge now.”

Darius sighed. “Has anyone tried to get one of these Karemma people back in here recently?”

“The door is locked,” Alaine said, gloomily.

Turning his attention to the door for the first time, Darius frowned. Locked. That seemed… concerning. Dimly, now he was listening for it, he could hear the sounds of people bustling around outside through the metal, but nothing in particular stood out. Certainly nothing that might give him more information than the others already had.

“Well, I guess there’s nothing for it! If I’m in charge then we’re all going to rest. No more yelling or worrying-“ here he looked pointedly at L'Kara, and squeezed Bennett’s shoulder again “-and I know it isn’t going to be easy. But after so long running and hiding in a strange quadrant, I think we’ve had plenty of practise and can manage it for at least a few more hours, alright?”

Nobody looked happy about it, but when L'Kara opened her mouth again he winced really obviously and let Bennett and Alaine shush everyone and hurry to help him ease back down again.

“Rest,” he repeated drowsily to nobody in particular once he was stretched out comfortably. “I sure as hell will while we can.”

*

It took many hours of rising tension before the faint hum of activity beyond their room started to fade, and the monotony was finally broken by the door opening. The person who walked through it was tall and thin with numerous facial ridges, and draped with clothes that looked to Darius’ admittedly uneducated eye rather like darker versions of the fabric on the walls.

“Apologies for not being here when you awoke,” this person said, with a small inclining of her head. “Slipping past the Jem’Hadar undetected took all of my crew’s attention. My name is Nuhalar, and you are aboard my trading vessel.”

More than half of their small group immediately started yelling at once.

“What have you done with our ship-“

“Why are you-“

“Why was the door locked-“

“Where is your doctor, Darius is still-“

“You can’t keep us-“

Nuhalar blinked, eyes wide, and swayed backward from the onslaught of panicked voices. “I was told some of you were awake earlier and had been informed-“

“I told them you said you were Karemma,” L'Kara cut in, voice quavering but visibly steeling herself. “Not that we have any way of confirming that. And that you said you were here to _help_ us, not to make us _prisoners_.”

“We are here to assist,” she said, lengthening her neck and gazing down at them sternly. It was with a pang that Darius recognised the move as alike to one Lucy had used often on the bridge, one of a Captain preparing themselves for a move into hostile space. “Our ships systems picked up the Jem’Hadar’s attack on your vessel from a distance and we approached to provide aid after they left you adrift.”

Everyone started talking over one another again immediately, until Nuhalar's lips thinned and Darius cleared his throat.

“We appreciate the help, but I’m sure you understand that we want to know what it’ll cost us,” he said.

Nuhalar made a humming noise in her throat and examined him for a moment.

“We did not recognise the design of your ship. You are from the Alpha Quadrant, yes?” she replied, casting an eye towards L'Kara’s ridges and Vesria’s spots.

“Why is that important?” he asked quickly, trying to distract from what seemed to be an involuntary growl starting to build in L'Kara’s throat. Her eyes were overly wide and her gaze had swung away from the Captain to fix on him a little desperately, but she did not seem able to stop.

Improbably, the hostility of Darius' response seemed to cause Nuhalar to relax. She inclined her head again with a smile.

“Nobody in my crew has had direct contact with the Alpha Quadrant, so we weren’t certain that was the origin of your ships design. Though it seemed likely given our increasing proximity to the wormhole. We are planning to travel through it ourselves, and hoped that we might be able to render assistance to you in exchange for some guiding information about what to expect on the other side.”

Darius stared at her, struck dumb for a moment in surprise. As, it appeared, were the others - including L'Kara who abruptly halted her sub-vocalisation.

“You can’t go through the wormhole. It disappeared a while back after a fleet of Jem’Hadar entered it,” Bennett eventually said, breaking the silence.

“Why else would we still have been on this side of it with a damaged ship?” muttered Alaine.

But as Darius watched, Nuhalar’s smile grew wider still. “Then we are already able to provide you with additional assistance in exchange for your help,” she said happily. “You will be pleased to hear, I assume, that the wormhole re-appeared recently and a number of Dominion war vessels returned home. Even now word is spreading among my people that a treaty was signed, and that the war is over.”

“You… it… You mean, we can…” Bennett stumbled to a stop again, wide eyed.

“We can go home?” Vesria asked, quickly echoed by many other voices.

“It will still not be easy,” Nuhalar cautioned. “Rumour has it that the Jem’Hadar continue to guard the wormhole despite the truce and are closely scrutinising all who wish to travel to the Alpha Quadrant. But yes, it is is possible once again. You can go home, and we hope to go with you.”

*

In the days that followed, Darius couldn’t help but wish desperately that Lucy was still with them. Not just as a friend. Heaven knew they were all used to losing friends at this point. But because Nuhalar had been open with them that while their chances of returning home were better now than they had been in what felt like a very long time, their odds of making it all the way to the wormhole undetected were still not promising. In the quiet of each night, while the others slept, he freely admitted to himself that he wasn’t sure if this was a better choice than continuing to search for safe harbour in the Gamma Quadrant.

However, they were quickly given free run of the ship once it was no longer on high alert. Soon even the engine room and other key areas were made available to them as Alaine offered to assist with a few repairs and upgrades. 

Not that there was much to see. They had been surprised to find few goods on the ship, and little in the way of storage areas either once they had started exploring. When asked, Nuhalar had simply waved an unconcerned hand and replied, “it is a trading vessel because it is a Karemma vessel, and all Karemma vessels are intended for trade.”

The more time they spent aboard, the more they realised that they were now guests of a crew pre-occupied with building things. Not one at all that concerned with transporting and storing them. A short, slightly rotund Karemma - so much so that Darius had embarrassingly taken him for a different species at first, which he had been kind enough to laugh off to Darius' relief - named Kinok had explained that each of the crew had chosen a storage room early on in their journey and converted it into a personal workspace.

Somehow, instead of a trading vessel, Darius had the feeling that they’d actual fallen in with a slightly eccentric group of inventors.

*

Within a week, everybody had found themselves a new routine among the Karemma. At night they huddled close to each other for comfort, as they had often done during hard times on the Lorentzia. But during the day each ventured out happily into their new ship, eager for new challenges.

L'Kara had taken to shadowing one or two of the Karemma from room to room each day, talking quietly with them as they worked and learning about their lives and their families and the home they had left behind. Alaine disappeared into the bowels of the ship frequently, apparently content to fix up this new vessel at all hours with her blood, sweat, and tears if she had to. Darius privately thought she was trying to make up for not being able to make the Lorentzia sufficiently battle ready even after never-ending months of constant upgrades while on the run, but he kept the suspicion to himself.

Vesria had no plants or animals on board to study, but instead of lamenting the loss of her sample collection she seemed content to supervise the remaining scientists as they worked on problems or learned what they could from and about the Karemma. Bennett had been welcomed on the bridge to assist with the navigation and monitoring of space as they travelled, but had quickly become flustered by the unusually blunt tongue of a helmsman named Eudar. 

Kinok had quickly assured them that Eudar didn’t really think ill of Bennett’s abilities. But in the end it had been simpler to return him to stay under Vesria’s watchful eye.

Having received the worst of the injuries among them, Darius simply limped from their sleeping room to what passed for a mess hall, and back again, and was none too happy about it. He itched to join Alaine at work in the belly of a whole new kind of ship, but whenever he tried to slip away Kinok would appear as if summoned and usher him back.

His ribs still pained him whenever he moved too fast, and while his headache was gone they had neither the expertise nor the equipment to do a proper head scan, as Kinok continually reminded him. Really, it was better if he rested. The irony of being more reluctant to rest when told than his own crew was when he gave the instruction was not lost on Darius. But if he was the difficult patient, Kinok proved to be an unexpectedly jolly and patient nurse, and eventually time and rest began to do its job just as everybody began to feel a little settled.

As settled as one ever got in the Gamma Quadrant, at any rate.

So it took him by surprise, one morning, when he entered the mess a little later than usual and walked straight into the middle of an argument amongst the usually rather sedate Karemma.

Glancing around the room, he realised he couldn’t see any of his own crew. Nor was Nuhalar anywhere in sight.

“-a waste of resources we don’t have,” one of the male Karemma was saying, one who Darius didn’t think anyone had had much contact with yet.

“Don’t pretend this is about resources, Lodinok,” another argued back. Darius thought she might be Oremar, and one of those who had been working with Vesria and her team. “You don’t like outsiders and never have, that’s why you made such a terrible trader that you wanted to leave!”

Lodinok made a desultory noise.

“The Jem’Hadar conduct regular searches of trading vessels that cross patrol routes. It is only a matter of time before they find us-“

“We made a fair agreement,” another voice joined in from among those watching, though Darius couldn’t pinpoint which Karemma had spoken.

“Yes, we did,” Oremar agreed, standing up and pacing. “They already have an assured place on our ship in exchange for their assistance when we reach the Alpha Quadrant. Yet, still they have been volunteering to help many of us throughout the ship with mundane tasks. Despite already having to deal with the loss of their own ship and most of their crew!”

“Who cares about the agreement that was made! It is too risky to have them here, now, and what happens in the future won’t matter if we never get there-“

“You must excuse them,” Kinok said quietly, appearing from nowhere as usual and attempting to draw Darius aside. The long narrow expanse of his forehead seemed to prevent any kind of furrow, but Darius would hazard a guess that his unusually grave countenance and the moue of his lower lip signalled distress. “It is not typical for Karemma to argue like this in front of others, not even unusual Karemma like ourselves. Especially not about a disagreement concerning parties to a trade agreement.”

“At this point, I’m a little surprised you rescued us at all,” Darius said stiffly.

Kinok’s lip protruded further. “Lodinok does not speak for anyone but himself. Fairness is one of our peoples highest principals, and the rest of us can see that his comments do you a great disservice even after only a short time working alongside you.”

A sharp movement caught Darius' eye over Kinok’s shoulder, and he looked up with a sinking feeling to spot Vesria and Bennett hovering in the doorway. Vesria’s face was grim, erasing any hope he might have harboured that they hadn’t been listening.

“Where even is this wormhole, anyway!” Lodinok was still ranting. “That child of theirs can’t find it for us, and this despite having been there before! And he is their supposed expert on the stars!” 

Bennett’s expression crumbled.

“Enough!”

Eudar had finally arisen from his seat in the corner where he had been eating with apparently no care for those arguing above his head.

“Even the nervous one has helped. Oremar worked with him herself to recalibrate our instruments, and Nuhalar has told you that the increased range allowed us to avoid a Jem’Hadar patrol just yesterday,” he said, voice strident enough to echo a little around the now silent room. “We should all be grateful we found them when we did, and that they were willing to stay and exchange their knowledge for our help. There will only be more patrols to avoid the closer we get to the wormhole and we need every advantage to escape them if we hope to reach the wormhole unchallenged.”

“Please, come away,” Kinok was still saying quietly, tugging on Darius’ sleeve.

“I think we have a right to know…,” he protested, but even Lodinok seemed to be subsiding into grumbling in the face of Eudar’s irritation. He could see that Vesria was guiding Bennett out of the room as well, and so he let himself be pulled along.

Kinok hurried them all down the corridor as quickly as Darius’ injury would allow, wringing his hands and muttering apologies all the while.

“I will bring Nuhalar and Eudar to speak with you immediately,” he said as he ushered them into their room. “You must understand. Even the Commerce Ministry was not brave enough to have open contact with the Alpha Quadrant once tensions began to arise, let alone after war was declared. We left Karemma together because we didn’t agree with decisions like those, but… we are ultimately a ship of misfits. Sometimes one or two among us will behave in an… unusual way.”

“I think we can all agree Lodinok’s behaviour just now was a little more than unusual,” Vesria said with a quirk of her eyebrow. 

Bennett just moaned and sunk to the floor with his head in his hands. “This is all my fault.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Bennett,” Vesria said. “Any fault here lies with the Karemma.”

Kinok nodded furiously and retreated for the door. “I will bring Nuhalar and Eudar,” he repeated rapidly. “Right away.”

Vesria turned toward Darius with a wry grin and a dramatic sigh once he was gone. 

“What a relief I was never joined-“

“-because then I’d have to put up with incompetent people for multiple lifetimes,” Darius finished with her in chorus, and with a reluctant smile.

Bennett just moaned again quietly below them.

*

Darius climbed back to his feet to face Nuhalar and Eudar when they appeared as promised with Kinok in tow, but Vesria didn’t rise and she didn’t let Bennett rise either. Somehow, despite sitting on the floor, she managed to look down her nose at the three Karemma as she slipped an arm around Bennett’s shoulders.

“Lodinok has always been an idiot,” Eudar said with a sniff, breaking the silence but then turning away as if uninterested in the remainder of the discussion.

Nuhalar sighed and nodded.

“We hope this incident will not make you feel unwelcome here. It has been an unexpected pleasure to have you among us these last few days,” she offered with her usual polite nod.

Darius shook his head.

“So we have the Captain onside and a helmsman, and a few others like yourself, Kinok. But Lodinok is part of your crew, and we are not. Do you really expect us to be so easily reassured after what we heard?”

Nuhalar and Eudar exchanged a long glance.

“You have learnt some of our ways already, and you know that we are a trading people,” Nuhalar finally offered haltingly, “but I think even your anthropologist does not yet comprehend the depths of Karemma loyalty to the decrees of the Commerce Ministry. All activities within our society are in pursuit of trade. Even those few of us who find ourselves unsuitable to any profession within the trading groups sometimes instead focus on creating and improving items which can then be traded by others. Working towards fair and equitable deals which benefit all, including the Karemma, is our highest ideal. Any activity which may bring unexpected risks and danger to our people must be carefully weighed against this ideal, and avoided wherever possible.”

“If these are your guiding principals then I must admit I am surprised you do not agree with Lodinok,” Vesria said.

“Surely no information we could offer would stand up to a Jem’Hadar inspection discovering us,” Darius agreed, brow furrowed.

“You misunderstand me,” Nuhalar said. “To have left Karemma behind for an unsanctioned journey into a quadrant with which we were recently at war and with whom the Founders continue to forbid contact… The risk of our actions would already be judged too great.”

“Lodinok quibbles over details because he prefers to avoid the true gravity of our decisions.”

“You don’t just fear the Jem’Hadar, then…” Darius concluded for them.

“We do not,” Nuhalar agreed. “While I am the Captain of this ship, I am not the leader of our group. Eudar is the one who found each of us and deduced that we were unsatisfied with the course of our lives as they were, and brought us together for this journey. If by some miracle the Jem’Hadar did not destroy us, they would instead give us back to our people who would be unlikely to show us any additional leniency.”

“What, would they throw you in jail?” Bennett asked, startling them all as he suddenly unfolded himself from his crouch on the floor to stare at Nuhalar.

All three of the Karemma shared another long glance between them.

“Probable death is often considered preferable if it might protect the lives of even a few other Karemma. What we do is in defiance of Dominion orders, and so it would be considered a risk to the entirety of our society,” Eudar eventually offered in reply.

Bennett gasped, and even Vesria’s quiet anger was giving way to surprise. Darius suspected his own expression was likely going through similar contortions despite his best efforts. 

“You see now, I think, why the support of Eudar and myself is much more than simply the support of a Captain and her helmsman? Eudar is the one who began this, and I am the one who provided the means of travel. We each of us stand the most to lose if we are caught, and the others listen to us accordingly.”

“You _are_ safe and welcome here,” Kinok said, his expression still as deeply earnest as before.

“We do not think we are far from the wormhole now-“

“-no, we aren’t!” Bennett said, leaning forward eagerly. “That’s what Vesria and I were coming to tell you, Darius. The stars are finally starting to line up with what I remember of our early starcharts, before we started running. I wasn’t sure for a while, we’ve covered so much ground and normally I’d rely on the records we lost on Lorentzia to jog my memory… but I’m sure now, there’s too many familiar clusters for us to be off course.”

“-though these last few days may very well stretch into weeks, depending on the Jem’Hadar patrols,” Nuhalar continued with an indulgent smile toward Bennett. “But we are close to our goal, and we do hope that by the time we reach it you will be confident in our regard for your people and their abilities.”

Sending a quiet prayer to Lucy for guidance, Darius contemplated Nuhalar and Kinok’s earnest expressions and Eudar’s inscrutably bored look. They seemed earnest and their explanations were more convincing than he had expected - but he was an engineer, injured or not, not any kind of leader to be making decisions that affected the safety of their entire group. He wasn’t even meant to be in charge of the other engineers when they first set out, before they lost the others bit by bit to the harsh realities of being stranded far from home.

A loud clatter in the hallway interrupted his thoughts.

“I don’t see that we have any choice for the moment,” he allowed, with a shrug, but smiled to soften the grudging slant of his words.

Alaine appeared in the doorway, face smudged with oil and her normally staid expression creased with happiness. 

“There you are!” she cried, pushing past the Karemma to grab Darius by the arm. “You won’t believe how their shield modulations work, I’ve just been examining some of the mechanics and I need you to look at something. Hullo, Nuhalar, maybe you should come, too - I think I can hide us more effectively from the Jem’Hadar sensors!”

In the round of surprised and happy exclamations that followed, Darius somehow managed to evade Kinok’s equally determined grasp and followed Alaine out the door as quickly as he could hobble.

Maybe the Gamma Quadrant was finally starting to look up after all.

**Author's Note:**

> sixbeforelunch, I hope you liked this! I had such a hard time choosing between your prompts but I tried to gather together a few different threads of things from your letter. Thank you for all the inspiring ideas, and the opportunity to write Trek for this exchange!
> 
>  
> 
> Character cheat sheet:
> 
> Surviving Lorentzia crew  
> Darius, half-human reluctant accidental leader  
> Vesria Dauil, the nurturing, unjoined Trill with little to no ambition  
> L’Kara, the Klingon anthropologist who’s a little scared of people  
> Bennett, the human astrophysicist who forgets his stars when he gets nervous  
> Alaine, the human engineer with zero pep and very little optimism
> 
> Karemma crew  
> Nuhalar, just about the only typical Karemma except that she always wanted to be a ships captain so she can explore and not so she can trade  
> Eudar, the (male) queen bee, yet blunt and somehow lacks any social graces  
> Lodinok, engineer who openly lacks an ethical compass (by Karemma standards, anyway)  
> Kinok, short and bubbly and not at all regal  
> Oremar, inventor and jack of all trades


End file.
